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Zachariah Szabo has had an interest in photography ever since he was a teenager. Now, Szabo is a part-time instructor at Point Park, and teaches Introduction to Digital Photography and two sections of Photography for Non-Majors.

Szabo said his favorite part of his job is watching students figure out photography.

“I think my favorite part of teaching photography is when the students really understand how photography works,” Szabo said. “I mean most students are used to taking pictures on their phones, and I don’t think they really think about how the image is made…And so once they get that lightbulb moment of ‘this is how it works and this is what I can do with it,’ that’s the most rewarding part for me.”

Szabo said his own work centers around his childhood and memories.

“My grad school work was a series of self portraits based on my childhood photos. So I would kind of recreate the outfits and poses from them and juxtapose them in these more adult environments,” Szabo said.

Szabo is currently working on a series of still life photographs that reference his childhood.

“Basically the objects and patterns and materials in all the still lifes reference some sort of memory from my childhood,” Szabo said. “So it’s a less direct reference but it’s still rooted in nostalgia and memory.”

Szabo said the project was a work in progress, but that he was considering making them into large scale installations.

Additionally, Szabo is a part of a theater on ice team in Virginia. Szabo started figure skating when he was five years old, and has been doing it ever since.

“I started competing when I was 11, and thereafter, my teenage years, it was the main thing I did. I traveled regionally, I went to junior nationals, sectionals and stuff, so it was kind of intense,” Szabo said.

Now Szabo teaches ice skating at the Robert Morris University Sports Center.

“I should probably use those skills I spent a good chunk of my life working on, try to give back,” Szabo said.

Szabo said he is looking at Neville Island, where the sports center is located, for his next project.

“It’s funny, I go there to teach but I’m really interested in doing a photo project on Neville Island, I think it’s a really unique spot. I haven’t really made any work towards that but still in my head,” Szabo said.